1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to an image processing apparatus that combines an object with a circular image, a printing apparatus, and an image processing method.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, household printing apparatuses are mainly used in printing images, documents, and the like, on paper. However, with the increasing use of circular storage medium such as a digital versatile disc (DVD) and a compact disc (CD) in homes, printing apparatuses now exist that are provided with a function for mounting such storage medium, and printing a circular image on a surface thereof. Furthermore, a technique exists for combining an object such as text data and a stamp with an image. Using this technique, an object can be combined with an image to be printed on the above-described circular storage medium. When an object is combined with a background image and printed in such a manner, it maybe necessary to adjust a position of the object with respect to the background image.
Nowadays, operations relating to printing which were previously performed by a personal computer (PC) can be performed using only a printing apparatus main body itself, without the PC. Therefore, it may be desirable that the printing apparatus can easily perform operations such as the above positioning. When the positioning is performed, a common method is to move the object to be combined on a display screen using a key. US Patent Application Publication No. 2005168566 discusses a method which determines a combination position of an object with an image by changing and rotating the position of the image with up/down/right/left keys. However, there is a need for a method which can be operated more directly than the method using the keys.
In view of this, one way would be to provide a touch panel in the printing apparatus. Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2004-282439 discusses a method for moving an object by touching a touch panel which displays a print preview. However, in most printing apparatuses the display screen is small, and thus it may be difficult to finely perform a movement and rotation operation.
Accordingly, considering that the image to be printed is circular, a wheel device such as a jog wheel may be provided to rotate the image. A user could thus more easily and directly position the object on the background image.
However, if the circular image or object is rotated, an orientation of the object on the display screen will change, and thus the object may not be aligned with a direction of the circular image. For example, as illustrated in FIG. 3E, the directions of the circular image and the object may be out of alignment.
A basic orientation of the object may usually be determined according to the user's preference when the user combines the object with the background image. Therefore, when the object is moved, the determined object orientation changes. In addition, when the user adjusts the object orientation and then moves the object, although the user has adjusted the orientation, the object orientation may move out of alignment.